Friday, 30 September 2016

It’s been a busy few weeks since the publication of The
Wendy House. My time as not just been spent promoting my latest book, but launching the Awards on
Chill with a Book over on my promotion site.

The Awards have got off to a great start with three Awards
already made. The Awards are designed for indie authors and authors with small
indie publishers. Why you might ask should I spend my precious time on this? Well, the answer is easy, indie authors write
some of the best reads out there, but due to a number of constraints their work
is no way visible enough, yet they deserve as much recognition, and sometime
more, than those published with the big publishing houses. I want to try and help a little to promote the very best in indie books, the Award is one way to do this.

The Chill with a Book Award is to promote that indie authors
do produce excellent books and for authors to be proud of receiving the Award.
However, the Award is not for everyone, it is only honoured to the best. If you
would like to know more about Chill with a Book Award, please click here

Talking about good reads, this is the latest review I have received
for The Wendy House, to say I am delighted is an understatement… “Be prepared
to get engrossed, to be taken into a story which will awaken quite a few
emotions for this is a very emotional book about a very emotional subject. Ms
Barclay has produced some spectacular novels in her career as a writer - this
one beats the lot.”

That is all my news for now and I promise to be back here very soon. In the meantime, a huge, thank you for
stopping by, have a fabulous day and I hope the sun is shining on your face and
in your heart.

Sunday, 25 September 2016

I don't think there is an author that is not taken aback at receiving reviews for their books. I know I am and I also know I will always remain humble and grateful.

Today, on Amazon I saw this review for The Wendy House; for me it was a book that was painful to write and is, no doubt, painful to read, but nonetheless, it is a story that must be told. Here is what the reviewer said...

"This book is Brilliantly Written, leaving you wanting to keep reading but not wanting it to end. It's very deep and you can feel the heartbreak of both the eldest daughter, and then for her parents side of things. I don't like to give stories away, but I can highly recommend this from Pauline Barclay. She's very creative and can't wait to read more of her work. Thank you Pauline for an incredible read."

Friday, 16 September 2016

As well as writing, running,
cooking, making posters with my Photoshop and doing zillions of other things
that need doing each day, I also run the exciting site, Chill with a Book!

I set up, Chill with a Book for
authors to showcase their books and for readers to find great page turning
reads. With over 60,000 hits on the site, Chill with a Book is moving into a
brand new and exciting area for indie authors and small indie publishers. This
exciting area is Chills very own Award!

Chill already has a team of
secret readers who evaluate books - they do NOT write reviews - instead they determine a books eligibility for
the Chill with a Book Award against a five point check list. Books must receive
a resound yes against each question, however if the book is border line, a reader
must then mark each question between 1 and 5. If a book receives 20 points or
more it will receive the Chill with a Book Award.

1. Were the characters strong and engaging?

2. Was the book well written?

3. Did the plot have you turning the page
to find out what happened next?

4. Was the ending satisfying?

5. Have you told your friends about it?

Saturday 17th
September sees the first two Awards announced. It is an exciting time at Chill
and also for indie authors. The announcements of all Awards will take place
over at Chill with a Book.

Tuesday, 13 September 2016

How to express how I feel at the moment is deserting me.
Emotional and blown away goes some way to describing my feelings, but it still
seems inadequate. This morning an email popped into my inbox and I had to read
it several times before I realised it was not only for me, but talking about my
latest book, The Wendy House. This is how the email started and below that is the
review the writer told me had been added to Amazon.

“Wow. Well-done, Pauline. You nailed it!”

Review …

Writing novels that address social inadequacies is a
time-honored tradition among the greatest of authors, from Charles Dickens’,
OLIVER TWIST on down to Margaret Atwood’s, THE HANDMAID’S TALE. Barclay has
just joined that esteemed small group with her latest release, THE WENDY HOUSE.

Never has an author so masterfully entwined the horrifying
reality of pedophilia into a story that keeps you wanting to read. Barclay has
not delicately or sensitively approached the subject but brilliantly put it
forward in all its darkness, while at the same time enticing the reader not to
dwell so much on the crime, but to root for the victim to not only survive, but
to tell someone, drop her guilt, understand what it is that is happening to
her, reconcile with her mother, find resolution.

Oh yes, we want so much for little Nicola to give up her
pain and flourish.

Told from the viewpoints of young Nicola and her mother,
this intense tale delivers emotions first and information, second.

Pedophiles so cleverly weave their way into families and
communities. They know exactly what to say and do to avoid detection and groom
their young victims. Learning the signs of something amiss in a child/adult
relationship is imperative and it’s all there in THE WENDY HOUSE—the
gift-giving, the secrets, the booze, the threats, the strong relationship the
abuser establishes with the parents.

Pedophiles can fool the experts so parents cannot be blamed
for not detecting the crime happening within their families, but they will bear
the results of that abuse—the sullen, unhappy children who later choose
perilous lifestyles. And without doubt, they’ll bear the guilt for not
protecting those they love the most.

THE WENDY HOUSE, an honest-to-goodness great read despite
the subject matter.

I hope you now you understand why I am blown away and
speechless!

Available in Kindle and paperback

As always, thank you for stopping by and thank you for all
your support. Have a wonderful day and I hope the sun is shinning on your face
and in your heart.

Sunday, 11 September 2016

It’s been a week since my latest baby, The Wendy House, stepped
out into the big wide world. It’s been an anxious week wondering if it would
sell added to the concern that the subject was perhaps a little too dark. I doubt
I’ll stop thinking these thoughts, but, maybe, sometimes you have to step out
of your comfort zone and take a look at the darker side of life. We might not
want to talk about these things, even read about them, but sadly there are people out there
who thrive on harming others, be it physical or mental abuse. Most abusers live
ordinary decent lives with everyone around them totally unaware of their
darkest secrets.

As for The Wendy House, I was asked to write a book on this subject, it was not
easy, but I hope that it will in some way help anyone found in a similar situation
to find their voice and talk to someone.

This week I have seen five reviews for The Wendy House, two
on Amazon, the others were emailed to me. One of the reviews on Amazon co uk says this….

“This is a beautifully written story. It's not lighthearted
as is talking about the greatest fear every mum has.

It talks about family, friendship, trust, loyalty and
ultimate betrayals.

Highly recommended but only if you're NOT expecting a light
read.”

Available in Kindle and paperback.

As always, thank you for stopping by and thank you for all
your support. Have a wonderful day and I hope the sun is shinning on your face
and in your heart.

Wednesday, 7 September 2016

Today, I have the fabby sassy author, Throne Moore sitting
round my pool and showing me up in her bikini….!!!

Thank you for inviting me from rainy Wales to your gorgeous
swimming pool. Here I am.

Well, I can always dream. I’ve reached the age when the more
appropriate dress, if I don’t want to frighten the horses, would be

Perhaps I’ll just sit under an all-concealing umbrella,
sipping something cool, and natter on about my new novel, The Unravelling.

Thorne, it’s been a long time since, I’ve laughed so much
and whilst you talk and I giggle, let’s open another bottle of bubbly….

Perfect, I’m in need of another drink after that. Now let me
talk about Karen, she’s a little more sobering than we are *laugh*

Karen, who mentally
unravels, as she begins to unravel the truth about events in her childhood.
Events that she had wiped out of her mind, but one little incident, an apple
rolling into a flooded drain, begins to unblock memories. Flashbacks come
piecemeal, leaving her struggling to make sense of it all, but the one thing
she is sure of is that she must find her childhood idol, the angelic Serena
Whinn, who is the key to the truth.

I write crime mysteries – I really love the label Domestic
Noir. I like to delve into the Why of crime, how it all came about and what
happened after, to everyone touched by it, rather than forensic investigation
or police procedure. I aim at slow revelation and understanding, rather than
the dramatic punches of a thriller. I’d prefer to evoke tears of pity rather
than squeals of terror. But in The Unravelling, I think I have come closest to
writing a genuine thriller, rather than just a psychological study.

The inspiration for the book is the estate where I grew up.
Like Karen, I was 10, going on 11, in 1965, and I have very vivid memories not
just of the place but of the childhood fears and fantasies attached to an
innocuous walk home from school It seemed to me then like a very permanent
thing, but it is only now, looking back with hindsight, that I can appreciate
what a state of flux it was in, spreading out across what had been farmland and
market gardens not many years before, a post-war council estate with prefabs
coming down and high rise blocks going up. Old farm tracks still existed among
the houses and streams ran through the estate in deep ditches, appearing and
disappearing like magic. They were always a lure to children, something to
swing across, somewhere to pick kingcups or fish, unsuccessfully, with bent
pins, for sticklebacks, but also slightly ominous, with dark culverts that only
big bold boys dare enter, because of killer leaches and possible monsters.
Children are good as inventing monsters. Perhaps they are an essential part of
childhood. They certainly add colour.

I fixed Karen’s childhood very firmly in 1965/6 because my
memories of what it was like to be a child then would not have made sense a
couple of years later. By the end of the 60s, the world had turned upside down
in psychedelic rebellion, influencing everything from dreams to dress. Back in
1965, before the summer of love and Vietnam and moon landings and The Troubles,
we were still clinging to the tail end of the deferential 50s in our cotton
frocks and pigtails. Daddies went to work and drove cars, mummies did the
shopping and packed us off to school, and discipline was maintained by the cane
and a clip round the ear from the local bobby. But there were still monsters,
real and imagined.

Action in the book is split between Karen’s flashback
memories of her childhood, and her attempts to unravel the truth, thirty-five
years later. I like using time as a significant element in all my books,
because I am fixated on history. No event stands alone. It occupies a place in
time, brought about by previous events and leaving a mark on all that follows.
Any attempt to look back at something, whether it happened yesterday or a
hundred years ago, is always coloured by our knowledge of what came after. I
like contrasting that sort of analysis of events, with the very different
understanding we have of events as they are happening around us now, in the
present, when we have no idea of what will follow.

I have played with time in similar ways in my two previous
books.

In A Time For Silence,
a young woman comes across the derelict Welsh farmhouse where her grandparents
had lived and she discovers that her grandfather was shot, although no one was
ever charged or convicted. She is determined to discover the truth, and
fantasises about how idyllic life have been before the murder destroyed it. I
intersperse her frequently deluded investigations with an account of what
really happened in the cottage, back in the 1930s and 40s.

In Motherlove, the story is split between 1990
when two babies are born in the same maternity ward, and twenty two years
later, when two young women discover that their mothers are not the women who
gave birth to them. They react in different ways, and both of them want to
learn the truth, but neither are expecting it to be what it is.

Thorne, a million thanks for sitting round my pool and
talking about your fascinating writing, as you know, I have read The
Unravelling and loved it, now I am about to take a peek at Motherlove. though not
until we’ve eaten more of these tapas I’ve made and finished this bottle of
bubbly.

Well, I have plenty more in the pipe line, in the same genre
and I’d be happy to share them with you another time around your pool, that’s
if you’ll have me back.

I am so excited today as it
is the day my latest baby is set out in to the big wide world. Yes, The Wendy
House is published.

When Nicola changes overnight from a bright, happy young child into a
sullen, rebellious girl, ceasing to show interest in anything or anyone around
her, her parents struggle to understand why. As she develops into a difficult,
troubled, hostile teenager they put it down to hormones, believing it will
pass. Yet Nicola goes from bad to worse and no matter how much her mother tries
to reach out to her, it seems she is hell bent on self-destruction. When she
leaves home at seventeen, rushing into the arms of a man ten years her senior
and quickly becoming pregnant, her despairing mother almost gives up on her. A
decade later, the events that stole Nicola’s childhood and changed the course
of her life threaten finally to destroy her. She knows if she is to cling on to
her sanity she must tell her mother the dreadful secret she has carried all
these years, but her fear that she will be met with disbelief, hostility and
branded an evil liar drives her to the edge.

A heart-rending story of betrayal, secrets and gripping fear.

Genre: Women’s Fiction / Family-Noir

I don't need to tell you that bubbly is chilling in the fridge for later, so cheer me dears and a HUGE thank you for all your wonderful support. I would not be at this stage without your amazing support.

Have a fabby weekend and I hope the sun is shinning on your face and in your heart.

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The Wendy House

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Published in Kindle & paperback

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Published in Kindle & paperback

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Will power and wealth destroy true love?

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A Discovered Diamond for Satchfield Hall

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A 20 minute festive story

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